Super Bowl Is Finally Worthy Of Name In Xxv

Warner Hessler

... Jim Kelly, the Buffalo Bills' quarterback, said last week that nobody remembers you if you lose in the Super Bowl, nobody remembers the great performances that got you there.

And he's probably right.

Super Bowl XXV was the best of all of them, a 20-19 victory by the New York Giants that wasn't secured until the Bills' Scott Norwood's 47-yard field goal attempt with four seconds remaining missed by about three yards. And it may be another XXV years before we see another one as good as this.

Previously, the best one was Super Bowl XXIII, when the San Francisco 49ers edged Cincinnati 20-16. But the most lasting memory of that game is Joe Montana engineering a 92-yard, game-winning drive at the end. The Bengals are only an afterthought.

The Bills, despite averaging 6.6 yards per play without a turnover, will be an afterthought in the latest, greatest Super Bowl ever played.

... That missed field goal at the end also means Thurman Thomas of Buffalo will have to wait at least another year to reap the millions of dollars in endorsements that would have come his way had Norwood's kick curved inside the uprights.

Thomas is the best all-around running back in the National Football League, and it was he, not highly-publicized quarterback Jim Kelly, who carried the Bills to the Super Bowl and had them in a position to win at the end.

Thomas rushed for 1,297 yards this past season, added 532 yards in receptions, rushed for 117 and 138 yards in two playoff victories, and rushed for 135 yards and caught five passes for 55 yards against the Giants' stingy defense.

He was the best player on the field and the game's most valuable player, but MVP honors went to Ottis Anderson of New York (102 yards) because his team won.

With the corporate world's passion for associating with winners and weird characters, Anderson will get the endorsements and the soft-spoken Thomas won't.

That missed kick cost Thomas - the NFL's best all-around back since Walter Payton - at least $5 million.

... OK, Tampa, I'll concede. You're boring, despite what the civic tub-thumpers on the Tampa Tribune say about you, but you were the perfect host for this year's game.

The NFL, which usually flaunts its wealth with a week-long glut of parties, went on a guilt trip last week and didn't want to give the impression it was having too much fun while the rest of the nation was agonizing over the hardships our soldiers face in the Middle East.

The NFL was looking to low-key this Super Bowl, and you were the perfect host.

It's a good thing this game wasn't in New Orleans. That city offers more than just good weather. There are tons of things to do - right there in the city, no less - and it does know how to throw a party.

Tampa, you were great this year, but let's don't make it a habit.

... It may sound a little unpatriotic to accuse ABC of selling patriotism during the pregame show, but the network did go out of its way to tug at our emotions.

CBS and NBC took advantage of this nation's support for the troops in the Persian Gulf last Sunday when it departed from its custom of running commercials during the National Anthem and focused on the American flags and banners before the conference championship games in Buffalo and San Francisco. It made for great television.

And ABC kept its cameras glued to the 73,000 flag-waving fans in Tampa Stadium Sunday.

What it missed was perhaps the most patriotic show of all, a display that wasn't planned or choreographed.

Some 10 minutes before kickoff, as the color guard came into view, Buffalo fans stopped chanting ``Let's go Buffalo,'' New York fans stopped trying to drown them out with ``Let's go Giants,'' and together they red-lined the decibel meter with ``USA...USA...USA.''